News, Openings, Events

OPENINGS

We do not have positions open at this moment.

Please note that the Ph.D. positions require acceptance in the Doctoral Program of Civil and Environmental Engineering, for which you must apply here. The evaluation of candidates is performed by an independent committee and we are not involved in the evaluation process.

In general, if you have excellent credentials and you are interested to work in our group, you can send your application anytime to Prof. Alberto Tiraferri for a pre-evaluation. There might be a possibility to fund your stay through a competitive fellowship program, such as Marie Sklodowska-Curie. Please note that if you do not receive a reply within 2 weeks, you should assume that your background is not suitable for the position or that the circumstances are not favorable.

NEWS

September 18, 2024

Ph.D. student, Erica Bertozzi, wins third place of the student poster award at Interfaces Against Pollution (IAP) 2024. Congratulations!

September 18, 2024

The international conference “Interfaces Against Pollution 2024” ended today and we are happy to say it was a success. We would like to thank the entire Torino team for the help and support and all participants for joining us and spending 3 days of science and social events. Until next time!

September 15, 2024

The international conference “Interfaces Against Pollution 2024” is starting today at Politecnico di Torino and will continue with an exciting scientific program until September 18th. We are proud and happy to welcome colleagues from all over the World to share ideas, successes, and experience with us.

August 2, 2024

Our article titled “Towards sustainable water management for Galdieria sulphuraria cultivation” has been accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment.

July 1, 2024

Our collaborative article titled “Efficient recovery of lithium from spent lithium-ion battery raffinate by Mn and Al-based adsorbents: pretreatment, adsorption mechanism, and performance comparison” has been accepted for publication in Separation & Purification Technology.

March 7, 2024

Our collaborative article titled “Productivity, selectivity, and energy consumption of pilot-scale vacuum assisted air-gap membrane distillation for the desalination of high-salinity streams” has been accepted for publication in Desalination. This is the first of a hopefully long series of outputs from our collaboration with Prof. Andrea Achilli and Prof. Kerri Hickenbottom out of University of Arizona.

March 4, 2024

Our collaborative article titled “Efficiency of a Combined Biological Aerated Filter and Ultrafiltration Process for Removal of Odor Compounds in Rural Drinking Water” has been accepted for publication in Separation and Purification Technology. Once again, we thank Prof. Baicang Liu for the productive collaboration.

January 31, 2024

Our review article titled “Plastic Microfibers from Household Textile Laundering: A Critical Review of their Release and Impact Reduction” has been accepted for publication in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology. Congratulations to all directly and indirectly involved!!!

November 17, 2023

Our collaborative article titled “Efficiency and mechanisms of biochar aerogels-assisted biodegradation of taste & odor compounds in a one-step membrane bioreactor for rural drinking water production” has been accepted for publication in ACS ES&T Engineering. Yet one more excellent addition to the literature from our collaboration led by Prof. Baicang Liu.

November 16, 2023

Our article titled “Osmotic membrane distillation for the extraction of valuable resources from water streams: Process optimization via model and experimental analyses” has been accepted for publication in npj Clean Water. Another excellent outcome from our European project “MEloDIZER”!

November 4, 2023

Our article titled “Modeling and Experimental Evaluation of Membrane Distillation aimed at Urine Treatment for Direct Potable Reuse in Space Stations” has been accepted for publication in Desalination. Congratulations to Ph.D. student, Ali Naeimi, for his first first-author paper with us!

November 2, 2023

Lorenzo Craveri and Reza Sallakhniknezhad start today their new position as Ph.D. candidates in the group. Welcome, both!!

October 11, 2023

Our article titled “Concentration of phycocyanin and coffee extracts in aqueous solutions with osmotically-assisted membrane distillation” has been accepted for publication in Separation and Purification Technology. Congratulations to Ph.D. student, Erica Bertozzi, for her first first-author paper with us!

October 1, 2023

Prof. Tiraferri starts today his new position as a Full Professor of environmental engineering at Politecnico di Torino.

September 26, 2023

Our collaborative article titled “Efficient lithium extraction from shale gas wastewater using sodium alginate/H1.33Mn1.67O4 composite granular adsorbents” has been accepted for publication in ACS ES&T Engineering. Once again, we thank Prof. Baicang Liu for the long-standing collaboration.

August 23, 2023

Our collaborative article titled “Efficient removal of organic matters and typical odor substances in rural drinking water using Ozone-BAC-UF combined system to meet new water quality standards in China” has been accepted for publication in Separation and Purification Technology. As usual, we thank Prof. Baicang Liu for the long-standing collaboration.

August 18, 2023

Our collaborative article titled “The dominant role of the peroxymonosulfate radical for removing contaminants in a Fenton process with metabisulfite” has been accepted for publication in Environmental Chemistry Letter. We thank Dr. Giulio Farinelli, ex-Ph.D. student in our group and now Marie Sklodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at University of Montpellier (France), for the leadership in this project.

August 14, 2023

Our collaborative article titled “Understanding the evolution of organic fouling in membrane distillation through driving force and resistance analysis” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Membrane Science. We thank Dr. Luca Fortunato and other colleagues and KAUST for the continued collaboration!

July 21, 2023

Our article titled “Dewatering of Scenedesmus o. substrate of cultivation with microfiltration: potential and challenges for water reuse and effective harvesting” has been accepted for publication in Engineering (Elsevier). Stay tuned for more on this stubject!

July 11, 2023

Prof. Tiraferri is in Kyoto for the inauguration of the PoliTo Japan Hub, in the presence of the Rector of Politecnico di Torino, the Ambassador of Italy in Japan, and other political and business leaders. See news article here. The Japan Hub intends to coordinate, promote and strengthen the university’s activities in the fields of teaching, research and, especially, the third mission (partnership with companies and communities). The Japan Hub, as an international flagship project for Politecnico di Torino, has an independent location in Kyoto to connect with the growing network of Japanese partners. The Hub relies on ongoing, structured collaboration with Italian experts who have been residents of Japan for many years.

June 20, 2023

Our collaborative article titled “Standardizing practices and flux predictions in membrane science via simplified equations and membrane characterization” has been accepted for publication in npj Clean Water. We thank Dr. Fynn Jerome Aschmoneit for leading the work and Dr. Mattia Giagnorio for initiating the collaboration. We hope that this work will help making membrane research more impactful and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable).

June 13, 2023

Prof. Alberto Tiraferri gave a public seminar with the title “Increasing Freshwater Supply through Desalination Driven by Renewable Energy” and conversed with Prof. MINO Takashi (Tokyo College, University of Tokyo) and Prof. KURISU Kiyo (University of Tokyo) about the potential of desalination technologies and their rational implementation to help alleviate water supply issues in the future. See a recording of the seminar here.

April 23-26, 2023

Ali Naeimi Tabasian, Erica Bertozzi, and Lorenzo Craveri were at the 3rd International Workshop on Membrane Distillation and Innovating Membrane Operations in Desalination and Water Reuse (md-sorrento202), organized by CNR in Sorrento, Italy. Ali had the chance to present a work with an oral talk titled “Performance Evaluation of DCMD Aimed at Urine Wastewater Reuse for Potable Purposes in Space Stations“. Congratulations to Erica, who won the best poster award with a work titled “Concentration and recovery of phycocyanin and caffeine from aqueous solutions with osmotically-assisted membrane distillation“.

March 14, 2023

Congratulations to Francesco Ricceri who, today, defended his Ph.D. thesis and was awarded a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering cum laude. The title of the dissertation is “Efficient Membrane-Based Solutions to Promote Water Recovery within Water-intensive Energy Production Processes: Three Case Studies“. We would like to thank Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour (University of Alberta, Canada) and Prof. Gayathri Danasamy Naidu (University of Technology of Sydney, Australia) for acting as external reviewers for the thesis providing very valuable comments, as well as Dr. Roberto Castro-Munoz and Prof. Kerri Hickenbottom for their participation in the Ph.D. defense as committee members and for raising interesting questions. We also thank Dr. Luca Fortunato (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) for supervising Dr. Ricceri while at KAUST as a visiting student and for the continued collaboration.

March 1, 2023

Prof. Tiraferri starts his position as a Visiting Associate Professor at The University of Tokyo (Japan), invited by the Tokyo College and by Prof. Satoshi Takizawa. See here: https://www.tc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/members/8839/.   Prof. Satoshi Takizawa and his group perform high-quality research in the Department of Urban Engineering at the University of Tokyo in the areas of urban water systems and urban water management, groundwater resource management in urban areas, and water treatment technologies using membrane filtration. Tokyo College was established in 2019 as a new institution to achieve two primary objectives: to become a “Global Base for Knowledge Collaboration” that contributes to both the world and future human society, to enhance the international presence of the University of Tokyo as well as that of Japan in academic fields. Prof. Tiraferri will spend six months in Tokyo (March-August 2022) and will visit several colleagues and research institutions while in Japan.

February 1, 2023

Erica Bertozzi starts her Ph.D. in our group. She will work on water reuse and resource recovery from wasteewaters and saline waters in industrial cycles, in the framework of circular economy.

January 12, 2023

Our collaborative articles titled “Safe Purification of Rural Drinking Water by Biological Aerated Filter Coupled with Ultrafiltration” and “Dissolved organic matter in complex shale gas wastewater analyzed with ESI FT-ICR MS: Typical characteristics and potential of biological treatment” have been accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment and Journal of Hazardous Materials, respectively. Two more great additions to the output of the collaboration with the group of Prof. Baicang Liu from Sichuan University.

October 24, 2022

Welcome to Lorenzo Craveri, a new members of our research group!

October 21, 2022

Congratulations to Roberto Bert who, today, defended his Ph.D. thesis and was awarded a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering. The title of the dissertation is “Hydrodynamic Techniques for Fouling Control in Membrane Systems” and the main supervisor is Prof. Costantino Manes (Politecnico di Torino). This work was funded by the CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo. We would like to thank sincerely Prof. Andrea Marion (Università degli Studi di Padova, Italy) and Dr. Luca Fortunato (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia) for acting as external reviewers for the thesis providing very valuable comments, and to participate to the defense as committee members. We also thank the other three committee members Prof. Tiziana Tosco (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), Prof. Fulvoi Boano (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), and Prof. Maurizio Righetti (Libera Università di Bolzano, Italy), who stimulated interdisciplinary and insightful discussion.

October 10, 2022

Prof. Alberto Tiraferri is listed in the list of the World’s Top 2% Scientists (most widely cited scientists in different disciplines). The list for 2022, just released, is prepared by Stanford University (USA) and is based on standardized citations and other bibliometric indicators. See more information here: DOI: 10.17632/btchxktzyw.4.

October 2022

The en.sur.e. water lab has been involved in two important actions of the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR, funded by EU). Specifically, we are part of:

  1. The National Research Centre for Agricultural Technologies (Agritech), one of the five National Centre funded in the framework of PNRR. This Centre is coordinated by Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (University of Naples) and its activities will be performed thanks to a total budget of more than 320 milion EUR for the next 3.5 years. The investments will be used to hire researchers and staff to dedicate to research (of which at least 40% are women), to create and renovate research infrastructures and laboratories, to promote birth and growth of entrepreneurial initiatives with a higher technological content such as start-ups and spin-offs from research;
  2. The Extended Partnership (Partenariato Esteso) on Circular and Sustainable Made-in-Italy (acronym: 3A-Italy), one of the fourteen Extended Partnerships funded in the framework of PNRR. This Centre is coordinated by Politecnico di Milano and its activities will be performed thanks to a total budget of approximately 121 milion EUR for the next 3.5 years. Through the Partnerships, the cooperation between public and private organisations is reinforced in the area of fundamental research, albeit aimed at solving major problems. The idea is to foster a model of collaboration that can move seamlessly from basic research to the exploitation of its results and create a new generation of researchers-inventors

In both actions, our lab is involved in activities aimed at reducing and valorisnig waste, with a focus on water and wastewater streams, for industry and agriculture, respectively.

August 2022

We are extremely happy and proud to announce that our project proposal “MEloDIZER – SUSTAINABLE MEMBRANE DISTILLATION FOR INDUSTRIAL WATER REUSE AND DECENTRALISED DESALINATION APPROACHING ZERO WASTE” has been retained for funding by the European Commission. Prof. Alberto Tiraferri will coordinate this project, together with Prof. Matteo Fasano (SMaLL), within the framework of their collaboration in the CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo. Politecnico di Torino will coordinate a consortium of 18 partners from all over Europe and beyond (Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malta, Spain, Switzerland), of which twelve are industrial partners and one is a public organization (Municipality of Eilat). The project falls within the call HORIZON-CL4-2022-RESILIENCE-01 (A DIGITISED, RESOURCE-EFFICIENT AND RESILIENT INDUSTRY 2022) and it is an “Innovation Action” aimed at bringing the technology to TRL 7. The project is 48 months long, its total budget is nearly 10 million EUR, of which about 7 million EUR funded by the EU. The main objectives of MEloDIZER are:

  1. Creation of next-generation membranes and modules obtained with green and readily scalable approaches;
  2. Rationally integrate the core innovative membrane and module components with energy and control systems that maximise their performance and enable the smart utilisation of renewable energy;
  3. Demonstrate the performance of the next-gen membrane components in the overall system for the reduction of industrial waste streams, the reuse of water, the extraction of resources, and for the production of drinking water by decentralised and diffuse human-scale MD units;
  4. Demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits associated with the implementation of the innovative membrane components and the resulting improved MD technology, also providing sustainable end-of-life management of membranes components and systems.

August 29, 2022

Our collaborative article titled “Coupling of forward osmosis with desalination technologies: System-scale analysis at the water-energy nexus” has been accepted for publication in Desalination. This study was co-led by Dr. Matteo Morciano (SMaLL and CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo) and Dr. Mattia Giagnorio (ex-PhD student in the en.sur.e. water lab, previously in the lab of Prof. Hélix-Nielsen at DTU, and currently at Golder).

July 12, 2022

Our article titled “Microalgae Biomass Concentration and Reuse of Water as New Cultivation Medium using Ceramic Membrane Filtration” has been accepted for publication in Chemosphere. This is the result of a collaboration with the groups of Prof. Zanetti and Prof. Riggio in our home department. We combined their expertise in microalgae cultivation and biology, with our knowledge of membrane-based separation to promote water reuse in the field of microalgae.

July 6, 2022

Our collaborative article titled “Unraveling the role of feed temperature and cross-flow velocity on organic fouling in membrane distillation using response surface methodology” has been accepted for publication in Desalination. This is the result of a collaboration with Dr. Luca Fortunato and Prof. Johannes S. Vrouwenvelder out of KAUST (Saudi Arabia), which we are grateful and very happy to be part of. Within this collaboration, our Ph.D. student, Francesco Ricceri, spent several months at KAUST working on understading and devising methods to control fouling in membrane distillation. The collaboration is continuing very fruitfully and we are working to strengthen it.

May 31, 2022

Our two collaborative articles titled “Theoretical evaluation of the evaporation rate of 2D solar-driven interfacial evaporation and of its large-scale application potential” and “Shale gas wastewater characterization: comprehensive detection, evaluation of valuable metals, and environmental risks of heavy metals and radionuclides” have been accepted for publication in Desalination and in Water Research, respectively. Another milestones of our collaboration with the group of Prof. Liu from Sichuan University.

May-June 2022

Prof. Tiraferri is on tour in the USA: he will be attending NAMS2022 and then he will visit some great people & scientists & collaborators at the University of Arizona (Prof. Achilli, Prof. Hickenbottom, Prof. Karanikola) and at Stanford University (Prof. Mauter). He will also talk about science in a seminar for the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Stanford (Monday June 13, 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm).

March 21, 2022

Our collaborative article titled “Loose Nanofiltration Membranes Functionalized with in Situ-Synthesized Metal Organic Framework for Water Treatment ” has been accepted for publication in Materials Today Chemistry. This paper is the result of the sustained collaboration with Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour and with the Elliott’s group at the University of Alabama.

March 17, 2022

Our research article titled “Formation of Halogenated By-products upon Water Treatment with Peracetic Acid” has been accepted for publication in Environmental Science & Technology. In this article, we indicate that the peracetic acid mixture often added to waters or wastewaters as a disinfecting agent can itself contribute to the formation of dangerous halogenated substances under certain circustmances, thus providing critical information to improve the use of this otherwise safe and interesting disinfectant. This article is the result of a sustained collaboration with the group of Prof. Vione and Prof. Minella out of University of Turin. 

March 14, 2022

Our research article titled “New facility for membrane fouling investigations under customisable hydrodynamics: validation and preliminary experiments with pulsating cross-flow” has been accepted for publication in Membranes. This article is the result of a sustained collaboration with the group of Prof. Manes within the framework of the activities of the Clean Water Center @ PoliTo.

February 25, 2022

Congratulations to Mehdi Pejman who, today, defended his Ph.D. thesis and was awarded a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering cum laude. The title of the dissertation is “Double-barrier membranes: coupling hydrophilic coatings with biocidal Ag-MOFs for sustainable (bio)fouling mitigation and biofilm inhibition“. We would like to thank Prof. Naser Tavajohi (Umea University, Sweden) and Dr. Fatemeh Seyedpour (University of Alberta, Canada) for acting as external reviewers for the thesis providing very valuable comments. Of course, a big thank you goes to Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour (University of Alberta, Canada) that co-supervised Dr. Pejman during his Ph.D. career.

December 30, 2021

Our collaborative research article titled “Polyelectrolyte complex hollow fiber membranes prepared via Aqueous Phase Separation” has been accepted for publication in ACS Applied Polymer Materials. Thanks very much to Prof. de Vos and his group at University of Twente for hosting Ph.D. student, Mehdi Pejman, and for leading this pioneering work in the field of membrane preparation.

December 2, 2021

Ph.D. student, Mehdi Pejman, wins the best poster award at Euromembrane2021 conference in Copenhagen, with his poster titled “Double-barrier membranes: coupling hydrophilic coatings with biocidal Ag-MOFs for sustainable (bio)fouling mitigation and biofilm inhibition“! Thanks to the organizers and the committee for valuing our work and to Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour for the crucial role in this work as co-supervisor and collaborator. Congratulations!

December 1, 2021

Marco Coha starts his position as a technician in the en.sur.e. water lab and in the groundwater engineering lab. Welcome!

November 2, 2021

Marco Malaguti starts his Ph.D. in the group. Welcome!

October 25, 2021

Our research article titled “Optimization of physico-chemical and membrane filtration processes to remove high molecular weight polymers from produced water in enhanced oil recovery operation” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Environmental Management. This article optimizes a cheap method to remove high-molecular weight polymers from saline wastewaters. Congratulations to the team members for the concerted effort that resulted in this work.

October 20, 2021

Our collaborative research article titled “Efficient removal of organic compounds from shale gas wastewater by coupled ozonation and moving-bed-biofilm submerged membrane bioreactor” has been accepted for publication in Bioresource Technology. Thanks very much to Prof. Liu and his very prolific group.

October 18, 2021

Our collaborative research article titled “Functionalized Polyamide Membranes Yield Suppression of Biofilm and Planktonic Bacteria while Retaining Flux and Selectivity” has been accepted for publication in Separation and Purification Technology. Great job to Mostafa, Mehdi, and the entire team.

September 22, 2021

Our collaborative perspective article titled “Solar-driven desalination and resource recovery of shale gas wastewater by on-site interfacial evaporation” has been accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Journal. We will never stop thanking Prof. Baicang Liu for the prolific collaboration.

September 22, 2021

Dr. Giulio Farinelli will be leaving the lab at the end of September for the opportunity to work on the development of a company dealing with chemical analysis and processes aimed at different purposes, including water treatment. Good luck!

July 14-17, 2021

Our collaborative research articles titled “Facile preparation of antifouling nanofiltration membrane by grafting zwitterions for reuse of shale gas wastewater” and “Can pre-ozonation be combined with gravity-driven membrane filtration to treat shale gas wastewater?” have been accepted for publication in Separation and Purification Technology and in Science of the Total Environment, respectively. Once again, we sincerely thank Prof. Baicang Liu for the prolific collaboration.

July 6, 2021

Dr. Mattia Giagnorio received an offer for a post-doctoral position at the Technical University of Denmark (Lyngby, Copenhagen) to work under the supervision of Prof. Claus Hélix-Nielsen in the Department of Environmental Engineering. Congratulations! His new position will start in mid-July.

July 6, 2021

Our research article titled “Evaluation of Fenton and modified Fenton oxidation coupled with membrane distillation for produced water treatment: Benefits, challenges, and effluent toxicity” has been accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment. This paper discusses the coupling of advanced oxidation and membrane distillation to purify highly contaminated industrial wastewaters.

June 11, 2021

Prof. Tiraferri is in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) as a guest of the Italian Cultural Institute of Abu Dhabi and the Sharjah Museum Authority for a seminar about water in EU and Italy and the role & future of seawater desalination to increase water availability. This seminar takes place on June 12th t the Sharjah Museums of Islamic Civilization and it accompanies the exhibition “Drop by Drop Life Falls from the Sky. Water, Islam and Art”. On June 13th, Prof. Tiraferri will meet the Italian Ambassador in Abu Dhabi, Dr. Nicola Lener, to strengthen collaboration between Italy and the UAE, especially around research & development activities related to water science and technology.

June 3, 2021

Our research article titled “Effective strategy for UV-mediated grafting of biocidal Ag-MOFs on polymeric membranes aimed at enhanced water ultrafiltration” has been accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Journal. This paper discussed the latest study involving the improvement of membrane fabrication and function, conducted in collaboration with Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour and with the Elliott’s group at the University of Alabama.

May 17, 2021

Congratulations to Giulio Farinelli who wins the Best Student Presentation Award (1st position) at the 11th International Conference Interfaces Against Pollution (IAP 2021) today, with an oral presentation titled “Fe-Chitosan Complexes for oxidative degradation of emerging contaminants in water: structure, activity, and reaction mechanism“, related to our paper in Journal of Hazardous Material. We thank the organizers, Prof. Wenfeng Tan (Huazhong Agricultural University, China), Prof. Liping Weng (Agro-environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, China), and Prof. Peng Cai (Huazhong Agricultural University, China) for a very successful conference undeterred by the current difficult circumstances.

May 6, 2021

Congratulations to Giulio Farinelli who, today, defended his Ph.D. thesis and was awarded a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering cum laude. The title of the dissertation is “Improving the sustainability and effectiveness of oxidative processes for water and wastewater purification“. We would like to thank sincerely Prof. Renato Baciocchi (Università degli Studi di Roma Tor Vergata, Italy) and Dr. Gilles Mailhot (Institut de Chimie de Clermont-Ferrand, France) for acting as external reviewers for the thesis providing very valuable comments, and to participate to the defense as committee members. We also thank the other three committee members Prof. Manuela Antonelli (Politecnico di Milano, Italy), Prof. Tiziana Tosco (Politecnico di Torino, Italy), and Davide Vione (Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy), who stimulated interdisciplinary and insightful discussion.

March 22, 2021

Prof. Tiraferri has been invited by the Tokyo College at the University of Tokyo and by Prof. Takizawa to spend a period of collaborative work and research in Tokyo as a visiting professor. Prof. Satoshi Takizawa and his group perform high-quality research in the Department of Urban Engineering at the University of Tokyo in the areas of urban water systems and urban water management, groundwater resource management in urban areas, and water treatment technologies using membrane filtration. Tokyo College was established in 2019 as a new institution to achieve two primary objectives: to become a “Global Base for Knowledge Collaboration” that contributes to both the world and future human society, to enhance the international presence of the University of Tokyo as well as that of Japan in academic fields. Prof. Tiraferri will spend six months (March-August 2022) in Tokyo during a sabbatical period. Greatly looking forward to it! (POSTPONED TO March-August 2023 due to Covid-19 pandemic)

March 11, 2021

Our collaborative research article titled “Organics removal from shale gas wastewater by pre-oxidation combined with biologically active filtration” has been accepted for publication in Water Research. We thank Prof. Baicang Liu for the prolific high-quality collaboration.

March 2, 2021

Prof. Alberto Tiraferri receives the ES&T Excellence in Review Award 2020 that recognizes multiple high quality review contributions in 2020. Read more here.

March 1, 2021

Our collaborative research article titled “Tunable membranes incorporating artificial water channels for high-performance brackish/low salinity water reverse osmosis desalination” has been accepted for publication in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). We thank Prof. Barboiu and Dr. Di Vincenzo for the continued high-impact collaboration.

March 1, 2021

Our research article titled “Environmental sustainability of forward osmosis: the role of draw solute and its management” has been accepted for publication in Environment International. Here, we calculate the environmental impacts of full-scale hybrid FO plants using LCA. We find consequential results about the burdens associated with the use of different draw solutes and interesting environmental trade-offs related to different possible configurations of the plants.

January 21, 2021

Our review article titled “Advanced oxidation processes in the removal of organic substances from produced water: Potential, configurations, and research needs” has been accepted for publication in Chemical Engineering Journal. This article reviews homogeneous and heterogeneous AOPs applicable for produced water treatment, their roles within integrated or hybrid systems, advantages, challenges, and perspective around their implementation.

December 30, 2020

Our article titled “Evaluation of the Effectiveness, Safety, and Feasibility of 9 Potential Biocides to Disinfect Acidic Landfill Leachate from Algae and Bacteria” has been accepted for publication in Water Research. We thank Prof. Stefanos Giannakis for this collaboration and for hosting in his lab Ph.D. student, Giulio Farinelli, despite the circumstances. We hope there will be further opportunities for collaboration coming soon.

December 3, 2020

The collaborative article article titled “Toward the Next Generation of Sustainable Membranes from Green Chemistry Principles” has been accepted for publication in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. This work, promoted and led by Prof. Baicang Liu (Sichuan University, China) has been performed also with the participation of the CNR Institute of Membrane Technology (Prof. Figoli and Prof. Drioli) and of Prof. Crittenden (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA). We are honored and happy for this collaboration and for this great publication outcome.

November 22, 2020

Our article titled “Fe-Chitosan Complexes for Oxidative Degradation of Emerging Contaminants in Water: Structure, Activity, and Reaction Mechanism” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Hazardous Materials. This work, led by Ph.D. student Giulio Farinelli, was performed through a collaboration with The University of British Columbia and Stockholm University.

November 2, 2020

Madina Mohamed Mahmmod joined the lab as a Ph.D. student. Welcome, Madina! She will work on membrane technologies for wastewater reuse and recycling. Madina’s studies are funded by Eni as she is the recipient of the 2019 award “Research Debut: Young Talents from Africa” for her previous work performed at the American University in Cairo (Egypt).

October 13, 2020

The collaborative article titled “Biomimetic artificial water channels membranes 1 for enhanced desalination” has been accepted for publication in Nature Nanotechnology. This work, promoted and guided by Prof. Mihail Barboiu (IEM, Montpellier), has been partly performed at Politecnico di Torino, specifically, the high-pressure reverse osmosis desalination tests and the related system modeling and calculations. Maria Di Vincenzo, a Ph.D. student working under the supervision of Prof. Barboiu, has spent some time in Torino to carry out these experiments, also thanks to the support from Politecnico di Torino and Compagnia di San Paolo. We thank Prof. Barboiu for this fruitful collaboration, which still continues today.

September 29, 2020

The collaborative article titled “Efficient integrated module of gravity driven membrane filtration, solar aeration and GAC adsorption for pretreatment of shale gas wastewater” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Hazardous Materials. We thank Prof. Baicang Liu (Sichuan University, China), for this very fruitful collaboration.

September 24, 2020

The collaborative article titled “Facile Post-Processing Alters Permeability and Selectivity of Microbial Cellulose Ultrafiltration Membranes” has been accepted for publication in Environmental Science & Technology. We thank Prof. Katherine Zodrow (MontanaTech, USA), for hosting Mattia Giagnorio in her lab and for this this fruitful collaboration.

September 18, 2020

Our article titled “Organic fouling in forward osmosis: Governing factors and a direct comparison with membrane filtration driven by hydraulic pressure” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Membrane Science. Ph.D. student, Francesco Ricceri, is the first author. Our colleague, Prof. Katherine Zodrow from MontanaTech, also participated by providing data on fouling layer properties using confocal microscopy.

September 3, 2020

Congratulations to Mattia Giagnorio who wins the Ph.D. Research Quality Award (1st position) for doctoral students who received a Ph.D. degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering in the academic year 2019-2020 at Politecnico di Torino! This award is given following an evaluation of the activities of the students in terms of research output and quality, coursework, collaboration with industry and patent authorship, dissertation quality.

August 25, 2020

The collaborative article titled “Super-Wettable PVDF/PVDF-g-PEGMA Ultrafiltration Membranes” has been accepted for publication in ACS Omega. We thank Prof. Baicang Liu (Sichuan University, China), for this continued collaboration.

July 17, 2020

Our article titled “In-Situ Ag-MOFs Growth on Pre-Grafted Zwitterions Imparts Outstanding Antifouling Properties to Forward Osmosis Membranes” has been accepted for publication in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. This study is the second outcome of a fruitful collaboration between Politecnico di Torino, Babol Soshirvani University of Technology (Iran), University of Alabama (U.S.A.), and University of Alberta (Canada).

June 3, 2020

Our article titled “Improved Antifouling and Antibacterial Properties of Forward Osmosis Membranes through Surface Modification with Zwitterions and Silver-based Metal Organic Frameworks” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Membrane Science. This study is the results of a collaboration between Politecnico di Torino, Babol Soshirvani University of Technology (Iran), University of Alabama (U.S.A.), and University of Alberta (Canada).

May 15, 2020

The collaborative article titled “Molecular Dynamics Insights into the Structural and Water Transport Properties of a Forward Osmosis Polyamide Thin Film Nanocomposite Membrane Modified with Graphene Quantum Dots” has been accepted for publication in Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research. We thank one more time Prof. Masoud Soroush (Drexel University, USA) and Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour (Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran), for this continued collaboration.

May 1, 2020

The collaborative article titled “Tailoring the Biocidal Activity of Novel Silver-Based Metal Azolate Frameworks” has been accepted for publication in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. We thank Prof. Masoud Soroush (Drexel University, USA) and Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour (Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran), for this fruitful collaboration.

April 16, 2020

Congratulations to Mattia Giagnorio who, today, defended his Ph.D. thesis and was awarded a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering cum laude. The title of the dissertation is “Membrane-based technologies for the production of high-quality water from contaminated sources: from lab experiments to full-scale system design“. Mattia is the first Ph.D. student to graduate from the en.sur.e. water lab; therefore, congratulations to the group as well! As a great mentor once said: from 0 to 1 is an infinite increase… We would like to thank sincerely Prof. Judy Lee (University of Surrey, UK) and Prof. Claus Hélix-Nielsen (DTU, Denmark) for acting as external reviewers for the thesis, providing very detailed and valuable comments, and to participate to the defense as committee members, stimulating forward-looking and insightful discussion.

April 1, 2020

Marco Coha joined the lab as a research assistant. Welcome, Marco! He will work on advanced oxidation processes for water purification and wastewater management.

March 10, 2020

Prof. Tiraferri is in Riobamba, Ecuador, visiting ESPOCH (Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo) in the framework of a E.U.-funded RISE project to study and propose solutions around the contaminations of mercury and other heavy metals caused by small-scale and artisanal gold mining activities in various part of Ecuador. This mobility has the objective of review background information and analyze preliminary results from a couple of sampling campaign.
Further update from April 11, 2020: despite the emergency situation and all the necessary restrictions imposed by the Government of Ecuador, the work in Riobamba was very productive. The collaboration was fruitful thanks to online work resources. Hopefully, a second visit later in the project will allow more real-life interactions and further field work.

February 25, 2020

Our article titled ” Natural Iron Ligands Promote a Metal-Based Oxidation Mechanism for the Fenton Reaction in Water Environments” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Hazardous Materials. In this work, we evaluate a simple method to discriminate between active species involved in the Fenton reaction in water and we show how environmental conditions influence and can be exploited to move from a free radical-based mechanism of oxidation to a metal-based (ferryl species) mechanism in the presence of natural and synthetic iron ligands. These results have direct practical implications in the removal of virtually all oxidizable hazardous substances from water streams. Also, the improved Fenton reaction in the presence of ligands reduces the amount of hazardous sludge to be disposed of compared to the traditional Fenton reaction.

February 13, 2020

The collaborative article titled “Sustainable Living Filtration Membranes” has been accepted for publication in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. We thank Prof. Katherine Zodrow (MontanaTech, USA), for this fruitful collaboration.

November 13, 2019

Our article titled “Metabisulfite as Unconventional Reagent for Green Oxidation of Emerging Contaminants Using an Iron-based Catalyst” has been accepted for publication in ACS Omega. In this article, we present for the first time the use of metabisulfite as a reagent in a Fenton-like reaction. Contrary to hydrogen peroxide, which is highly reactive and causes temporal or residual injury even after short exposure, metabisulfite is chemically stable and may be toxic only after intense or continued exposure.  Therefore, this manuscript describes a new and safer catalyzed decontamination process directly applicable in the decontamination of water effluents.

November 13, 2019

The collaborative article titled “First Exploration on Poly (vinyl chloride) Ultrafiltration Membrane Prepared by Using the Sustainable Green Solvent PolarClean” has been accepted for publication in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering. We thank Prof. Baicang Liu (Sichuan University, China), for this continued collaboration.

November 4, 2019

Francesco Ricceri joined the lab as a Ph.D. student. Welcome, Francesco! He will work on membrane-based processes for desalination and wastewater management.

October 25, 2019

The collaborative article titled “Improving the Performance of PVDF/PVDF-g-PEGMA Ultrafiltration Membranes by Partial Solvent Substitution with Green Solvent Dimethyl Sulfoxide During Fabrication” has been accepted for publication in ACS Omega. We thank Prof. Baicang Liu (Sichuan University, China), for this continued collaboration.

October 23, 2019

The collaborative review article titled “Advances in Functionalized Polymer Membranes for Biofouling Control and Mitigation in Forward Osmosis” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Membrane Science. We thank Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour (Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran), for this continued collaboration.

September 25, 2019

Our article titled “Desalination of Produced Water by Membrane Distillation: Effect of the Feed Components and of a Pre-treatment by Fenton Oxidation” has been accepted for publication in Scientific Reports. In this article, we present an experimental investigation of the behavior of membrane distillation when treating produced waters of varying composition and subject to different pre-treatments.

September 1, 2019

The collaborative article titled “Feasibility of Membrane Processes for the Recovery and Purification of Bio-Based Volatile Fatty Acids: A Comprehensive Review” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. We thank Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour (Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran), for this continued collaboration.

June 27, 2019

The collaborative article titled “Tailored mesoporous biochar sorbents from pinecone biomass for the adsorption of natural organic matter from lake water” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Molecular Liquids. We thank Dr. Maryam (Roza) Yazdani (Aalto University, Finland), for kindly hosting one of our previous research assistants, Nicola Duimovich, and initiating this study.

June 22, 2019

The collaborative article titled “Reuse of shale gas flowback and produced water: effects of coagulation and adsorption on ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis combined process” has been accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment. We thank Prof. Baicang Liu (Sichuan University, China), for this continued collaboration.

June 18, 2019

The collaborative article titled “Facile Cu-BTC Surface Modification of Thin Chitosan Film Coated Polyethersulfone Membranes with Improved Antifouling Properties for Sustainable Removal of Manganese” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Membrane Science. We thank Prof. Ahmad Rahimpour (Babol Noshirvani University of Technology, Iran), for initiating this fruitful collaboration.

June 12, 2019

The collaborative article titled “Evaluating the performance of gravity-driven membrane filtration as desalination pretreatment of shale gas flowback and produced water” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Membrane Science. We thank the corresponding author, Prof. Baicang Liu (Sichuan University, China), for initiating this fruitful collaboration.

May 2-3, 2019

We have the honor to welcome His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi from Sharjah (UAE), as well as his Special Advisor for Higher Education and Scientific Research, Dr. Amr Abdel-Hamid, to our lab and to the CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo for a short presentation of our desalination systems. This occasion falls within the visit of His Highness to the city of Turin, The Turin International Book Fair, and Politecnico di Torino. In this occasion, a honorary doctoral degree will be conferred to High Highness.

May 2, 2019

Our article titled “Hybrid forward osmosis-nanofiltration for wastewater reuse: System design” has been accepted for publication in Membranes. In this article, we present a full-scale system design comprising the forward osmosis step and the downstream draw regeneration stage based on nanofiltration, with the goal to extract high-quality water from wastewater.

April 10, 2019

Alberto Tiraferri, Mattia Giagnorio, Giulio Farinelli, and Francesco Ricceri are coming back from the Engineering With Membranes (EWM) conference in Båstad, Sweden. They presented their work on forward osmosis, membrane distillation, and advanced oxidation processes with four talks. They enjoyed their time in Sweden very much, including great discussions with many colleagues and membrane experts from both academica and industry.

March 22, 2019

On the World Water Day, the en.sur.e. water lab, in collaboration with the CleanWaterCenter@Polito and other colleagues and friends around the world, has launched the Rights of Water Campaign. The campaign aims at drafting a true Declaration of the Rights of Water, acknowledging that to finally guarantee the rights to water, the rights of water should be concurrently recognized. The campaign collects contributions from anybody who wishes to propose and bring forward one or more prospective rights of water. Go to www.rightsofwater.eu if you wish to participate to this campaign in any capacities.

January 20, 2019

Our article titled “Desalination of brackish groundwater and reuse of wastewater by forward osmosis coupled with nanofiltration for draw solution recovery” has been accepted for publication in Water Research. This article presents results obtained by treating real brackish water and real secondary wastewater effluent using a hybrid system comprising forward osmosis and nanofiltration. The results obtained at high recovery rate with regeneration of the draw solution provide insight on the feasibility of this hybrid system for water reuse and desalination. Please read more from the publisher by clicking here.

December 13, 2018

The project “Novel wastewater disinfection treatments to mitigate the spread of antibiotic resistance in agriculture (WARFARE)” has been funded by CARIPLO within the call “Circular Economy for a sustainable future – 2018”.   The coordinator of this project is Prof. Gianluca Corno out of the National Research Council of Italy – Institute of Ecosystem Study Verbania.  The en.sur.e. water lab will participate as an external partner (with no allocated budget) and will help including membrane-based processes within the systems to minimize the spread in the environment of the determinants of antibiotic resistance, namely antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB) and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs).

December 6, 2018

Our article titled “Stepwise synthesis of oligoamide coating on a porous support: Fabrication of a membrane with controllable transport properties” has been accepted for publication in Separation and Purification Technology. This article presents a new tight ultrafiltration membrane consisting of a tunable oligoamide layer that shows different selectivity as a function of the growth of the dendritic oligoamide structure.  This study was conducted in collaboration with the U of the Negev, Sde Boqer, Israel, Dr. Roni Kasher and Dr. Roy Bernstein as principal investigators. Please read more from the publisher by clicking here.

November 15-17, 2018

Prof. Tiraferri is at the WaterEnrgyNEXUS 2018 conference in Salerno, Italy, organized by the SEED group of Prof. Belgiorno and Prof. Naddeo out of University of Salerno.  On Saturday, the conference will visit the wastewater treatment plant of Punta Gradelle in Vico Equense.

October 27, 2018

Our article titled “Synthesis of eco-compatible bimetallic silver/iron nanoparticles for water remediation and reactivity assessment on bromophenol blue” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Cleaner Production. This article presents a new protocol for the synthesis of silver-zerovalent iron nanoparticles for the nanoremediation of contaminated sites.  The new protocol does not make use of hazardous sodium borohydride and it produces highly reactive bimetallic nanoparticles.  This study was conducted in collaboration with the Environmental Nanotechnology Lab of DIATI with Prof. Sethi as principal investigator.

October 25, 2018

Prof. Tiraferri is at Politecnico di Milano as member of the advisory board for the Emerging African Innovation Leaders program. The teams of African brokers from six different countries of the continent will present their project ideas to spur the transition to the Next Production Revolution (NPR) in their respective countries.

September 30 – October 4, 2018

Francesco Ricceri and Prof. Alberto Tiraferri are in Palermo (Italy) for SDEWES 2018, the 13th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems. They have an oral presentation on “Desalination of brackish groundwaters with forward osmosis coupled with nanofiltration for the recovery of draw solutes” and a poster presentation on “Membrane distillation for brine treatment: membrane evaluation and coupling with solar thermal energy. They were kindly invited here by Prof. Giorgio Micale and his research group.

September 26, 2018

Maria Di Vincenzo, Ph.D. student at the European Membrane Institute (IEM) in Montpellier, France, under the supervision of Prof. Mihai Barboiu and Dr. Yves-Marie Legrand, is visiting the en.sur.e. water lab.  She will stay for roughly three weeks characterizing her innovative membranes comprising artificial water channels in our laboratories.  In particular, she will test the ability of these membranes to perform seawater desalination and their long-term stability while in use.  Have a great stay, Maria!

September 25, 2018

Our article titled “Rapid Desorption of Polyelectrolytes from Solid Surfaces Induced by Changes of Aqueous Chemistry” has just been accepted in Langmuir. In this paper, we discuss the way in which polymer layer can desorb from solid surfaces following changes in aqeuous chemistry, relevant for many environmental processes and applications of both materials and polymers (e.g., flocculation).  Please read more from the publisher by clicking here.

September 7, 2018

Our article titled “Maximizing the degree of sulfonation of polysulfone supports in TFC membranes for osmotically-driven processes” has just been accepted in Macromolecular Materials and Engineering. In this paper, we discuss the properties and performance of TFC membranes with maximized level of sulfonation in their polysulfone-based support layer. Please read more from the publisher by clicking here.

September 3-4, 2018

Prof. Tiraferri is visiting Prof. Veronica Morales and her research group in the Department Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of California Davis. Prof. Tiraferri will meet all the group members individually and have a group discussion about research progress and possible collaborations. More info about the work and the lab of Prof. Morales can be found here.

August 21-23, 2018

Prof. Tiraferri and Ph.D. student Mattia Giagnorio are visiting Prof. Katherine Zodrow at Montana Tech in Butte, Montana. Prof. Tiraferri has met several engineering faculty and gave a seminar on “Membrane-based Processes for Improved Water Management: Two Case Studies“.  Mattia Giagnorio will remain here as part of his Ph.D. work to conduct research in Katherine’s lab until the end of 2018.

August 11-17, 2018

Prof. Tiraferri and Ph.D. student Mattia Giagnorio are at the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on “Membranes: Materials and Processes”.  They are presenting posters on forward osmosis and on abatement of pharmaceuticals from wastewater.

August 2, 2018

Our article in collaboration with the University of Turin, titled “Coupling of nanofiltration and thermal Fenton reaction for the abatement of carbamazepine in wastewater” has just been accepted for publication in ACS Omega.  In this article, we discuss the potential of nanofiltration as a pre-treatment to remove hydroxyl radical scavengers  from wastewater effluents and enhance the efficiency of Fenton oxidation.  Please read more from the publisher by clicking here.

July 26-27, 2018

The en.sur.e. water lab and the groundwater engineering group are in Mondovì (CN). They are presenting their latest research activities in the seminar on the protection and valorization of water resources on Thursday.  On Friday, the groups are performing field measurements at three water springs, two fracture karst springs and one seepage spring in the area of Val Corsaglia. These three springs provide between 50 and 500 L/s water of exceedingly high quality to the Langhe region.  The groups will also visit the karst caves of Bossea, which host a laboratory of the DIATI Department to study paleoclimate.

July 5-13, 2018

Mattia Giagnorio, Francesco Ricceri, and Daria Grinic are at Nym 2018 and Euromembrane 2018 in Valencia, Spain. Mattia, Ph.D. student, has an oral presentation at Nym on July 6 at 9.45am about “Coupling nanofiltration with Fenton oxidation for pharmaceutical abatement in wastewater treatment”. He also has an oral presentation about wastewater reuse by forward osmosis at Euromembrane on Thursday, July 12, at 3.10pm in the session “Membranes for wastewater treatment II”, held in Auditorium 1.  Do check him out if you have the chance! Francesco and Daria, both research assistants, have poster presentations in the sessions “Membranes for wastewater treatment” and “Membranes formation and surface modification”, respectively. Pay them a visit if you can!

June 28-29, 2018

Prof. Barbara Sherwood Lollar (University of Toronto, winner of the Eni Award for the Protection of the Environment 2012) is visiting Politecnico di Torino. During her time in Turin, Prof. Sherwood Lollar also paid a visit to our en.sur.e. water lab and was kind to engage in discussion with Prof. Tiraferri aboout science, water, and the environment. Please read more about Prof. Sherwood Lollar’s past and current accomplishments by clicking here.

June 23, 2018

Our article “Design and Performance of a Nanofiltration Plant for the Removal of Chromium Aimed at the Production of Safe Potable Water” has just been accepted for publication in Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering.  In this article, we discuss results obtained with a nanofiltration plant to treat chromium-contaminated well water.  Please read more from the publisher by clicking here.

June 19, 2018

Our article “Achieving Low Concentrations of Chromium in Drinking Water by Nanofiltration: Membrane Performance and Selection” has just been accepted for publication in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.  In this article, we discuss a comprehensive set of laboratory data to provide mechanisms of chromium removal with nanofiltration and to guide the choice of the appropriate membrane.  Please read more from the publisher by clicking here.

June 10-12

Prof. Tiraferri and Giulio Farinelli attended the conference “Interfaces Against Pollution” in La Grande-Motte, France, where they gave two presentations on nanoremediation and on cataytic degradation of contaminants using organometallic complexes.  Among the several colleagues who shared with them a good time and discussions, they were especially pleased by getting to know Rachele Ossola, a very bright young scientist who is now conducting her Ph.D. work at ETH (Switzerland).

June 6-8, 2018

Prof. Tiraferri visited the “Adaptive Supramolecular System” group headed by Prof. Mihai Barboiu and Dr. Yves-Marie Legrand in Montpellier. Prof. Tiraferri is involved in a project as a co-supervisor of IEM Ph.D. candidate Maria Di Vincenzo. Her research revolves around the development of polymeric membranes for desalination.

May 28-30, 2018

Prof. Tiraferri attended the 11th Colloid Chemistry Conference in Eger, Hungary.  He gave an invited presentation as keynote lecturer, speaking about understanding and controlling the colloidal stability and subsurface mobility of reactive nanoparticles used for the reclamatin of contaminated aquifers. He has especially enjoyed useful discussions with former colleagues Tamàs Szabò (U Szeged), Gregor Trefalt (U Genève), and Istvan Szilagyi (U Szeged), as well as with Alexander Talyzin (Umea U), Aristides Bakandritsos (Palacky U), and Erwin Klumpp (Forschungszentrum Jülich).

March 13-16, 2018

Prof. Tiraferri is in Israel to visit Prof. Guy Ramon (Technion) and as an invited speaker in the workshop on “Nanotechnologies in Clean-Tech Applications” organized by the Israeli Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and by the Italian Embassy in Tel Aviv.

March 9, 2018

Congratulations to all the students and researchers who saw their abstracts accepted for the conference Euromembrane 2018 (9-13 July 2018, Valencia, Spain):

  • Francesco Ricceri and Mattia Giagnorio: Production of high quality water from brackish groundwater using a Forward Osmosis – Nanofiltration system (oral)
  • Mattia Giagnorio: Coupling of nanofiltration and thermal Fenton reaction for the abatement of carbamazepine in wastewater (poster)
  • Antonio Amelio: Customized Nanofiltration Membranes Resistant to Harsh Solvents and Fabricated via Stepwise Oligoamide Synthesis (poster)
  • Daria Grinic and Mattia Giagnorio: Sulfonated polysulfone-based membranes for forward osmosis with highly hydrophilic and stable support layers (poster)
  • Antonio Amelio and Mattia Giagnorio: Energy requirements and environmental assessment of forward osmosis using different draw solutions (oral)

February 1, 2018

Prof. Tiraferri was kindly invited by the committee of the 11th Conference on Colloid Chemistry (May 28-30, 2018, Eger, Hungary) to give a keynote lecture. He will speak of the work in collaboration with Prof. Sethi, Dr. Tosco, and Dr. Bianco with a talk titled “Colloidal Behavior and Injection Strategies of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Aquifer Nanoremediation“. The conference is organized by The Hungarian Chemical Society, Eszterházy Károly University, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Hungarian Society of Natural Sciences, Chemistry Division. Please find our more by clicking here.

December 14, 2017

Our article in collaboration with KIT, Germany: “Organic Fouling through Magnetic Ion Exchange‐Nanofiltration (MIEX‐NF) in Water Treatment” was accepted in Journal of Membrane Science. Read more from the publisher by clicking here.

December 5, 2017

The official presentation of the Clean Water Center (CWC) will take place on Tuesday, 5 December 2017, at 2 pm at the theater room of SiTI in C.so Castelfidardo, 30 / A – Turin.

The Clean Water Center addresses technological challenges related to water safety and supply.  Its goals are the design and advancement of innovative water treatment systems to purify and to reclaim contaminated water streams efficiently and by using alternative energy sources. The activities of the CWC combine the scientific and technological expertise of four Departments of Politecnico di Torino: DIATI, DISAT, DENERG, and DET.

November 23-24, 2017

The en.sur.e. water lab is hosting Dr. Roni Kasher, Dr. Roy Bernstein, and their Ph.D. student, Paramita Manna, from The Zuckerberg Institute of Water Research of Ben Gurion University of The Negev, within the framework of the bilateral project “StepPolyMem”. This is officially the final meeting of the project and hopefully yet another step of a continued collaboration between our lab and these guest researchers.

November 1, 2017

Gulio Farinelli starts his Ph.D. in our group. He has a chemistry background and will investigate advanced oxidation processes in water and wastewater treatment. Welcome, Giulio!

October 6, 2017

The Makers Competition 2016-2017 took place on October 6th. Five finalist teams displayed their prototypes for water desalination and the team “Sunflower” was awarded the first place. Sunflower built and modeled a prototype of membrane distillation powered by solar thermal energy.

The Maker Competition is a competition among teams consisting of students from the courses Advanced Engineering thermodynamics (Prof. Pietro Asinari), Energy storage and trasmission (Prof. Elio Chiavazzo), and from the Masters’ degree in Environmental Engineering. This year, the competition was organized as a collaboration between Prof. Asinari (DENERG), Prof. Chiavazzo (DENERG), and Prof. Alberto Tiraferri (DIATI). The teams had a budget of total of EUR 150 to build and model a prototype to desalinate seawater with the supervising help of the Ph.D. students Matteo Morciano (DENERG) and Mattia Giagnorio (DIATI).

Please read more from here and see pictures of the event by clicking here.

September 21, 2017

Our article “Controlled Deposition of Particles in Porous Media for Effective Aquifer Nanoremediation” will be published in Scientific Reports.  This study is led by Prof. Sethi in the framework of the H2020 project “Reground” funded by the European Commission.  Please read more from the publisher by clicking here.

August 30, 2017

Our article “Fabrication of Nanofiltration Membranes via Stepwise Assembly of Oligoamide on Alumina Supports: Effect of Number of Reaction Cycles on Membrane Properties” will be published in Journal of Membrane Science.  This study is in collaboration with Dr. Kasher and Dr. Bernstein out of Ben Gurion University, Israel. Please read more from the publisher by clicking here.

July 13, 2017

A proposal for the application of forward osmosis and membrane distillation to reuse produced water has been funded; the project has a duration of two years and you can find out more about it by clicking here.

June 19, 2017

Our article in collaboration with IEM Montpellier: “Polyol-functionalized Thin-Film Composite Membranes with Improved Transport Properties and Boron Removal in Reverse Osmosis” was accepted in Journal of Membrane Science. Read more from the publisher by clicking here.

June 15, 2017

Today, we start our collaboration with Eni S.p.A. and with Syndial, Eni’s company focused on environment and environmental projects, to investigate and optimize treatment of contaminated groundwater using forward osmosis for beneficial use within industrial facilities as process or sanitary water.  Eni funded work on this topic for the next 2.5 years.  This collaboration will involve mostly experimental work both at the lab and at the pilot scale.

May 11, 2017:

Prof. Tiraferri, together with Prof. Sangermano from Politecnico di Torino, is visiting Dr. Ron Kasher and Dr. Roy Bernstein in The Department of Desalination & Water Treatment (DWT)  ofthe The Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR) in SdeBoqer, Israel.  This travel is a second visit within a collaborative project on the fabrication and functionalization of membranes for wastewater treatment.

April 7, 2017

Our article “On – line UV curing of electrospun polysulfone fibers containing an acrylate as crosslinker” was accepted in Macromolecular Chemistry and Physics. Read more from the publisher by clicking here.

April 2, 2017

Post-doc researcher, Antonio Amelio, and PhD student Mattia Giagnorio are at the 3rd International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain, with a talk and a poster: if you are around, do check them out. See website of the conference and download the program here.

April 1, 2017

Our article “Environmental Impacts of Detergents and Benefits of their Recovery in the Laundering Industry” was accepted in Journal of Cleaner Production. Read more from the publisher by clicking here.

March 31, 2017

The proposal for the interdepartmental center “CleanWaterCenter@PoliTo“, coordinated by Prof. Tiraferri, has been awarded funding for its establishment and its first three years of operation, amounting to 1.2 milion Euros. The CWC brings together 10 Professors from 4 different Departments of Politecnico di Torino (Environmental Engineering; Applied Science and Technology; Energy; Electronics and Telecommunications) working jointly for the development of technologies aimed at the purification of water and wastewater using advanced processes. Good luck for this new adventure!

March 1, 2017

Our article “Colloidal Behavior of Goethite Nanoparticles Modified with Humic Acid and Implications for Aquifer Reclamation” was accepted in Journal of Nanoparticle Research. Read more from the publisher by clicking here.

January 3, 2017

Our article “Ultrafiltration Membranes Functionalized with Polydopamine with Enhanced Contaminant Removal by Adsorption” was accepted in Macromolecular Materials and Engineering. Read more from the publisher by clicking here.

December 1, 2016

Congratulations to all the students and researchers who saw their abstracts accepted for the 3rd International Conference on Desalination using Membrane Technology (2-5 April 2017, Gran Canaria, Spain):

  • Maria Di Vincenzo: Fabrication of functionalized thin-film composite membranes for desalination and boron rejection (oral)
  • Mattia Giagnorio: Application of integrated membrane treatment for innovative washing systems in industrial laundering (poster)
  • Antonio Amelio: Development of thin film composite polyamide membrane on alumina support with customized thickness (oral)

November 1, 2016:

Prof. Tiraferri, together with Prof. Sangermano from Politecnico di Torino, is visiting Dr. Ron Kasher and Dr. Roy Bernstein in The Department of Desalination & Water Treatment (DWT)  ofthe The Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research (ZIWR) in SdeBoqer, Israel.  The visit fits within a collaborative project on the fabrication and functionalization of membranes for wastewater treatment.

September 19, 2016:

Our article “Solvent Stable UV cured Acrylic Polysulfone Membranes” was accepted in Polymer International. Read more from the publisher by clicking here.

August 31, 2016:

Prof. Tiraferri will be giving a talk at conference IAP 2016 in Lleida, Spain. The talk will focus on iron oxide particles used in site remediation technologies.  See more about the conference by clicking here.

July 26, 2016:

Our article “Ultrafiltration to Reuse Laundering Wash Water: Evaluation of Membranes and Permeate Flux” was accepted in Desalination and Water Treatment. Read more from the publisher by clicking here.

July 25, 2016:

Prof. Tiraferri will be visiting KIT on July 28th. He will be a guest of Prof. Andrea Iris Schäfer and will give a seminar on adsorption mechanisms of macromolecules, how these phenomena relate to organic fouling during water separation by membranes, and how we can reduce fouling and maximize process performance.

July 22, 2016:

Mattia Giagnorio is accepted as a PhD student. Congratulations, Mattia! He will start his work as a PhD student next Setpember.

July 1, 2016:

Workshop at DIATI – Politecnico di Torino: Nanoparticles and Water Resources, 11-12 July 2016
Lecturers from McGill University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) and Politecnico di Torino
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